The Marine Ball

I had the pleasure of attending the Marine Ball on Friday night. I got all gussied up (in my homecoming dress from my senior year of high school!) and had Debbie and Jenni help with my hair, it was an upside down french braid in the back, and curls all on top, I really did feel like I was getting ready to go to a ball, like a fairy tale, especially when I got to wear Debbie's super fancy red jewelry to match my dress, and some designer earring knock-off that I bought in Jerusalem. Debbie was dressed elegantly too, and Lane was in his Dress Blues with all kinds of ribbons and medals, and Jeremy (My date) wore his best suit.

We had a driver (how cool!) pick us up at the house, and took us to the four seasons hotel where the ball was. We were there among the very first guests because Lane needed to welcome some of the dignitaries there. Jeremy and I waited in the cocktail hall, where fancy glittery ladies with their hair all done up and gorgeous, escorted by the men in either tuxedo's or their dress uniforms; all poured in. It was such an elegant occasion. Everyone was drinking fancy wine and mixed drinks, and everyone looked so beautiful!

We made some friends, were introduced to I don't know how many people. I made particular friends with a lovely woman named Sebina who was from the UK. LOVED her accent, she said funny things like "brilliant" "astonishing!" and some other funny phrases in Arabic, but with a British accent, it was so cute and fun. We mingled with folks including the Pakistani Colonel Fouad Hafeez and his wife, and Colonel Chris Rider, with his wife (Sebina).

After cocktail hour, we were escorted into the Grand Ballroom, where our table (Which was right next to the head front table...out of 40 tables that's not bad!) and our place settings with our NAMES on them! I was so thrilled to have a name place setting that said Miss Courtenay Lance...so cool! The tables were so fancy decorated, even the chairs had fancy while cloth covers with gold shimmery cloth tied on top. First there was formal business, some guest speakers, etc. The Marine ball is held to celebrate the Birthday of the Marine Corps. It is now 233 years old! Wow.

There was a very moving movie as well as the guest of honor whose message got me pretty emotional. I am so grateful for every man and woman who sacrifice their lives and time and give up jobs and time with family to protect the freedoms we enjoy every day. The man who was speaking bluntly put it when he said, our enemies hate us, they would truly kill us all if they could. They would like us all to be vanished. We don't know why they hate us but they do, and they will do whatever they can to destroy us, and that is why our military soldiers, airmen, and marines are so vital to our way of life. we need them to keep our values, our families , our freedoms protected. I am proud to be an American, I really really am.

Anyway, since it was the birthday of the Marines, they had a birthday Cake. It is brought in by Marines with very much ceremony, pomp and circumstance, and patriotic music etc. I was really looking forward to it because I thought the cake would be so big and fancy...it was just a super tricked out sheet cake....not much to see. SO the guest of honor is presented with the first piece of cake, and he takes a bite with all of us watching. Then they give a piece to the oldest member of the Marines present, and he symbolically passes the cake after he takes a bite, to the youngest Marine, who also takes a bite. If you're interested the oldest there was 76 and the youngest was 20.

After the speakers, and ceremonious happenings, they bring out the fanciest appetizers I had ever seen. Smoked Salmon wrapped around some creamy cheese with capers and sauce, barbecued shrimp, fancy lettuce greens with citrus dressing, a peeled wedge of grapefruit and orange, and salmon tartar (bits of raw salmon mixed with creamy cheese), and cocktail sauce for dipping. Very beautifully arranged on our plates, and delivered by white coated waiters. I felt SO fancy! I even ate all of my raw smokes and salmon tartar! If you know me well, you know i don't do raw fish, but I did it, and it was yummy! Especially the shrimp!

Then people mingled etc...then dinner was served. Mine was chicken stuffed with basil, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, in a gravy sauce, with mixed veggies and potato. YUM. Then there was dancing! Jeremy was my date, his first date and I taught him all he needs to know to impress a girl on a date...and the boy can dance. He got moves like a brutha! Hilarious like Michael Jackson with a twist and sweet grooves and moves. It was really fun to dance with him, PLUS watching Lane and Debbie dance was a blast! It was very funny and fun. Colonel Lance has all of 2 moves (at least that I saw last night), he does a side to side shuffle type, where he moves his arms back and forth and might even snap once in awhile, or he does the twist. Oh yeah!

I also had a blast dancing with my new kindred spirit Sebina, she was so fun! She got a kick out of my "lawn mower" and "Shopping Cart" but she called it the shopping trolley. The dancing rocked, but there was so much drinking, which I didn't mind as much, but there was also OS much smoking! Everyone was smoking cigars, and they stink SO bad! The man sitting next to me at the table smoke like 4 cigars, so gross, and at the end of the night he kept saying good night And here people kiss each cheek as a greeting, and he kissed my cheeks with his nasty cigar lips and breath and rotten teeth like 12 times! I swear he kept forgetting he had already said goodbye. Ewe. All in all the ball was SO fun! It took me back to the stake dance days, I still got moves! :) It was so fun to dance, and play and meet fancy people!

OH , I almost forgot, Condoleezza Rice was supposed to be there, but she went to Aqaba instead (Aqaba is a beach place, with resorts, great scuba diving, tropical-ish climate etc) The Ambassador had chosen to take her there instead. Too bad. Anyway, it was SO cool!

Side note, it started at 6, and we left at 11. After we left apparently there was a fight! Well, for one thing everyone had too much to drink, and one of the Colonels (a really cool and very nice and fun HUGE black man) accidentally stumbled into a woman. When he was apologizing the woman's husband came out and started yelling at Col. Phillips like "What the H are you doing with my wife?!!" I guess they had a fist fight and Col. Phillips had to take the guy down...wish I coulda seen that excitement! People can be so stupid, like when they drink.

Lane, Debbie, Me, Jeremy

The lovely Ladies

Me and Jerms

Dancing (In case you couldn't tell)

Also dancing...it looks like I am attacking Lane, but rest assured, it is only an optical illusion

Lane and Debbie Cuttin a rug! Sweet moves!

The aforementioned fancy appetizers, salmon shrimp etc...

Showing off my fancy jewelry

My super fly date, I cut his hair, isn't he so cute?

My very own place setting! It's like they were expecting me or something!

The presentation of the color guard

Notice the fancy tables and chairs, and uniformed people

Some of the most posh people there!

My handsome Date, Jeremy (Age 15 1/2)

Sorting the patriotic colors and my old homecoming get-up

Anyway, Thursday night I got back from Jerusalem...AMAZING! I'm working on the pictures still, so it will be out of order but I will blog about it a day at a time. Love you all, thanks for keeping in touch!

Jerash

Jerash was SO COOL!!! It was my first experience really with ancient ruins, I am just in awe of how detailed everything is, how many hours it must have taken to carve it all out of stone...man it's just amazing. There have been seven major earthquakes in the last I don't know like a thousand years or so, and many of the buildings and things have been demolished, but still their remains are there. They are just incredible, so much history it seems in every stone. It's very very cool. It was built by the Romans, hence the fancy columns and statues etc... SO cool!

Hadrian's Arch, massive. very detailed. Beautiful!

Debbie and me, BFF pic :)

Sitting on some of the ruins behind Hadrian's Arch

In front of Hadrian's Arch

The whole hippodrome, there was a play that we missed, that was a chariot race! COOL! We did get a picture with some of the costumed men though...

Debbie looking at the hippodrome

Some of the guards, they were laughing and waving, and they would smile and then go back behind their wall, then come back out and do it all again, they reminded me of shy flirtatious school girls...pretty funny.
This guard came over waving his sword, we were laughing at him, and he came over and put his arm around my waist, and started grunting HHMMMM through his mask. It was funny, showing off seemed to be his specialty

This is Justin at the end of the Hippodrome, outside these arches is a great view of what is modern Jerash.

A bird, don't know what kind, just thought this was a cool photo with the pillars from the forum in the background

A storage place next to the hippodrome, cool arches

The South Gate of Jerash

detail of the carving on top of a column, with the forum in the background

The Temple of Artemis

The faces of these carvings have weathered away, and where they once stood on top of the massive buildings, they now sit on the ground. I don't know if you can tell but the one closest was a lion, you can kind-of see the tail...

These guys were playing Scottish traditional songs on the bagpipes...talk about out of place! Debbie said though that Jordan was part of British mandate or something waaaay back when, so maybe it's not that out of place. The acoustics in the amphitheater are awesome!

The stage, so many entrances, so cool!

The amphitheater rows and rows and rows...

Backstage of the theater

Ash Showbak

Ash Showbak is a castle built by Crusaders about 1000 AD, it's actually one of the newer castles. It's built on top of a high hill, overlooking the Jordan desert in all directions. The crazy thing is, this castle was built on a high hill, how did they get water??? They built a deep tunnel/staircase of 376 steps down to the base of the mountain, where there is a nearby spring. When Saleah-Al-Din overtook it only like 100 years after it was built, he overpowered them by siege (they cut off their water and food supply) for a year and a half, and then used cannons to ultimately take over. Yikes. It was actually inhabited until the late 1950's!!! Wow. Now it is being restored.
We hired a guide to take us through it, he was a character, but he started to get a little too fresh if you know what I mean...awkward!

This is the more distant view of the Castle on the hill

Inside the castle, here is where the school was, and in it they taught Arabic all the way until the 1930's!
Inside where the church was, the treasure room. The guide took Jenni down there and brought her to this hole and said to Justin "your greatest treasure, right here" Amelia was surprised about Mommy in the treasure room.
Also in the church, there was an arch in the middle of it, that contained 33 stones, one for each year of Christs life.
An Olive Oil press
This is the tunnel to the water source. After the tour Lane, Justin, Jeremy and Jared went all the way down and out at the bottom, they said it was VERY dark, good thing they had flashlights, and very cool.

The kitchen!
Our "friendly" tour guide

In the Castle
I'm sitting on the throne...cheek to cheek with my new friend who was waaaay too touchy...and had Stinky breath among other things, he was really nice though.
Finally, Amelia and Me
What a great trip!!!

Petra

Whew, we just got back from Petra!!! AMAZING!! So a little history about Petra first, it is an ancient and mean ANCIENT city built by the Nabateans, later used by the Romans. The City is built straight out of sandstones, it's all red rock ( a lot like Moab actually) and carved out insaaaaaaaane buildings, pillars, sculptures etc. The buildings are vast, and virtually perfect. The path to the city is through a Siq, that they paved almost a thousand years ago. They had a very complex water system, really amazing. The Siq is a narrow hallway with rock wall so high above you, and its littered with ancient carvings. The air is cool even though its so hot outside, the sun barely hits the floor of the siq during the day.

Then as you walk along, there are tons of little carts pulled by small horses carrying tourists who don't want to walk to the entrance of the city. The carts are loud and dangerous. Also some obviously local Jordanians were walking at about the same time and pace as us, and they had about 7 little kids under the age of 9. They were SO cute, they were very poor, wearing well worn out coats and hats, with only flip flops for shoes, but they were beautiful! They were SO cute, and got a kick out of us saying "Hello". They would say hello, then giggle and say Hi, and giggle and say how are you? or where from? They teach English in the schools here...anyway one little girl was playing peek-a-boo with me all the way to the entrance. Speaking of the entrance, it is just Breathtaking!

Also, I fulfilled one of my life goals, I rode a camel!!! They are so tall and super stinky, but it was fun. It's a little scary when they stand up and lay back down, but they really are cool. I love their faces, they can be so expressive, especially their eyelashes, I love it! It was fun. I would do it again, but probably not for very long, it's not the most comfortable thing ever :) We made our way through the ancient city, there were merchants on every side, as well as small boys trying to hire out their donkeys. They would shout "Donkey Taxi ride, good price, happy hour, give you special deal!" (They ALL say happy hour, all the time...it's pretty funny. Also one of them was yelling "Air conditioned Donkey Taxi ride!" It was funny. There was also an old man with a blanket full of trinkets, saying to everyone that passed by "Chinese coins, straight from China, only half dinar (that's like 50 cents) Only one week old straight from China!" It was so funny, it was modern Chinese currency, but he seemed to think it would be a novelty item...yes sir that's exactly what I want as a souvenir from Petra, something made in China! Brother! Okay the rest I'll tell with pictures. Enjoy!

Me in front of the Tomb of Obelisks and the Tomb of Triclinium, this marked the beginning of the city, before the siq.

This was in the Siq, carvings like this one were all over
In the Siq
These children running through the water trough in the Siq, it was dry of course, they were singing and laughing all the way, it was so cute to watch and interact with them
A glimpse of Al-Khaseh through the Siq

Mounting the Camel...
And off we go!
Me in front of AL-Khaseh, the most well known structure in Petra
A Nabataen guard...he let me hold his staff/spear

A close up of the carvings in the pillars
Al-Khaseh
Awe, Camels
In front of the 17 Tombs at the end of the street of facades

The street of Facades

The Urn Tomb, and royal tombs...the picture doesn't do it justice, it is really magnificentHilarious right? And why not?

Behind me is the theater, it looks more like a bowl shaped rock, but look closely they are steps/theater seats! Donkeys and the Treasury

Posing on a very Zeus-like statue, though it's not Zeus, it's a Nabataean God.
This is the South Temple, or what's left of it. I think they are working on restoring it.

Well so that's Petra, it was amazing, and really the pictures are cool but they never do them Justice, it was really awe-inspiring. There are tons more pictures, but I just had to put a few.